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January 25,2001EditorialWe at The J-TAC have madeyet another effort to reach out toour readers. For the next fewweeks we are going to be meet-ing with special Interest groupsand diversity/minority organiza-tions.One of the goals of The J-TACthis year is to have a clear andopen line of communication tobetter serve students.The stu-dent paper wants to know if weare covering events, concerns ortopics of interest to these groupson campus,This is our reportcard. How are we doing?What does this mean? Well, ifwe have contacted your group,call us back! We at The J-TACwould like some sort ofresponse. We are not here togenerate the news; we are hereto report it.Just like the news, we here atthe newspaper are expected toconstantly change. So we will.What will not change, is our levelof commitment to our readersand the caliber of stories youexpect to read in The J-TAC. Westrive to keep getting better andbetter. Welcome back!StaffEditor in ChiefVanessa FoxOpinion EditorJustin TaylorPhotography EditorAndy DuncanSports EditorRocky MillerEntertainment Editor,Aaron Lemons (,'*■ !ti1 i • •Managing EditorCarisThetfordWeb DesignerTohma MorrisonAdvertising ManagerCaleb ChapmanAdvertising SalesCoordinatorD.J. WereneckeDistribution ManagerJennifer DawsonCrime ReporterDallas SimsSenior Staff WritersDana SealsMike LewisJennifer DawsonStaffWrite rs/P h otograp hersRebecca GutzCredence HatleyLeslie PattesonKeri PritchardThe J-TACPage 3EditorialPoliciesIf you have any suggestions,comments or responses aboutthe J-TAC, Tarleton or worldevents, you can either email us atjtac@tarleton.edu, mail a letter; to T-0440, Stephenville.Tx 76402> or come by our offices in room20 of the SDC.Letters should contain a name,phone number and student IDnumber and be 500 words orfewer. However, your name canbe withheld if you provide uswith the preceding information.Letters must be received by 5 pmon Mondays.The J-TAC reserves the rightto edit letters for content, style,length, and grammar. The J-TACalso reserves the right to refuseto print any letter deemed to bein bad taste.The J-TAC is published onThursdays during the fall andspring semesters with the excep-tion of University holidays andexamination periods. The edito-rials express the opinions of theJ-TAC staff.i Other articles in the opinion■ section do not necessarilyexpress the views'of this univer-' sity or this newspaper,j Content is copyrighted materi-| ; al of the J-TAC. Written permis-j • sion must be granted for article .j ; reprints.All eyes on John Ashcroft"They say you can't legislate morality.Well, you certainly can"John AshcroftChicago TribuneBy Justin TaylorOpinion Editor CommentaryWow. Yet another political commentary. I don't do these much because I so oftenfeel inept when it comes to writing about our political society. But today, I'm goingto make an exception. No, this isn't a tabloid, andI'm not going to touch Jesse Jackson. Get over it, Iam, however, going to chat on the subject of oneMr. John Ashcroft.Maybe I don't get the concept of appointing someone as our nation's chief lawyerand enforcer of Federal and Civil rights laws. It would seem to me that it wouldhave to be a person beyond reproach. A person with neither, "spot nor wrinkle" onhis social and political rap sheet.Simply put, John Ashcroft isn't it. I've been reading a few magazine articles relat-ed to this subject, and proponents of Ashcroft continue to say that it is ridiculous tothink that his personal views would affect his judgement as Attorney General. Theysay it's a slap in the (face for judgements to be made based upon his past decisions.Now, I'm not exactly a rocket scientist, but how is a person supposed to discernwhich person to appoint, if not for the person's past political decisions? This is howthings are done. You look at people's record. If they work well for us, or prove wellfor our political system, we approve. If he falls short of the credentials and provesLetters to the Editortoo big for his britches, we let them sit there on the floor and cry. Sp£™1 10 lhE 1-T*CAshcroft has voted against desegregation laws, environmentalissues and even AIDS research. Why would an intelligent man like "Dub-ya"attempt to appoint Ashcroft into this position? He seemed to have been a goodfriend to his daddy. Family ties rim, stroiig round .these here parts.In fact, opposing John Ashcroft seems to be the new fad these days. Want to seemore? Take a look at www.opposeAshcroft.com, the website dedicated to gettingthis guy away from any source of power. According to CNN, he's stated that hisrole as Attorney General would be different than that of a senator. And he's right.Now he would have more power, Look at who's opposing this guy : The SierraClub, The NAACP, Planned Parenthood and many others. It's like the-powers-that-be are combining to try and take this guy out. Vote wise, the Senate seems to besplit regarding the subject.Oddly enough, the polls are predicting this guy to vvin, in spite of all the opposi-tion mounted against him. It seems a person only needs to have deep pockets - orfriends with deep pockets, to galvanize a surge of approval. If you have conserva-tive, established big business behind you, anything is possible.As of yesterday, Ashcroft's appointment was pushed back due to-his needing ,torespond to roughly 126 hand-written questions by prominent senators. As always,I'm just waiting to see how it all is going to go down, wrong or right.Editors Note:ivhaf ybiLjv^utdifferentto'printDear Editor:There are some of the more recent excuses for wars and covert actions. TheUnited States fought a war in Vietnam to preserve democracy, freedom and tostop North Vietnamese agression. The United States intervened in El Savador,Guatemala and Nicaragua to prevent these countries from becoming puppets ofCuba, which in turn was a puppet of the Soviet Union. The United States bombedYugoslavia to stop ethnic cleansing and help the Kosovar Albanians. The tinyisland of Grenada was invaded to protect American students there. Panama wasinvaded to apprehend a drug dealer. The United States is intervening in Columbiato stop drug trafficking.Each of these statements is a blatant lie and much more destructive lies than Ex-President Clinton's lies about sex because these wars and covert actions causemuch suffering and death, the U.S. media will accept these lies as gospel truthsevery time and then reason from these unproven assumptions. They will notinvestigate and spend hours and hours of TV time on the subject like they have onClinton and Monica Lewinsky. Why? These Eire lies in defense of U.S. foreign poli-cy and U.S. foreign policy protects the interests of large corporations like thosethat control the media.All of the interventions I have mentioned were done to ensure that ability ofAmerican capitalists to exploit the land, labor and natural resources of other coun-tries and ensure that no successful example of socialist development is allowed tooccur anywhere because it is a threat to this world corporate dominations, as epit-omized now by NAFTA, GATT and the World Trade Organization.This is a process which has been occurring for five hundred years in the ThirdWorld and is called imperialism, although the U.S. media denies its existence. Itdid not end with the end of colonialism, but can be seen in the horrible conditionsin sweatshops all over the world.The immense brutality in Columbia and U.S. involvement is not to stop drugs,but to stop socialism and ensure the safety of U.S. corporate investment in thatcountry. As citizens of the United States, we have an obligation to pressure-thegovernment to stop the atrocities being committed in Columbia.WEK'tSf- JL |S^X-tr:v ..-AwmummJkmt 4Noting the moment - Hail to the chiefBy Keri PritchardStaffWriter .Gary Sudborough1965 Graduate of Purdue UniversityBS in Chemistry -Give me a quote!—-A university professor set an examination question in which he asked( "What is the difference between ignorance and apathy?" The professorhad to give an A+ to a student who answered: "I don't know and I don't care/'—Richard Pratt"We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun;he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected/'—HenryDavid ThorreauCommentaryAlright, I'll admit it: I cry like a babywhenwit-ness-ing historical events. As I sat in front ofmy television last Saturday watchingthe inauguration of our forty-third pres-ident, George Walker Bush, my eyeswelled with tears of mixed emotions.Oh, how I want to believe that every-thing will be alright under this newadministration. I want to believe thathe will indeed do his best to serve andprotect our country and look out for thewelfare of "Middle America," but I justdon't know.Let's face the facts: historically, fewpeople from Middle America have beeninvited to the "Grand ol' Party."Even though our illustrious formergovernor has been dubbed a uniter andnot a divider, I am still skeptical of hisability to unite our political parties orbuild a, "single nation of justice andopportunity."This skepticism is derived from livingin a family whose very livelihooddepends on which party is in the WhiteHouse and controls congress.When one party historically sides in vyour favor on issues concerningwhether you will be able to provideyour family with their basic needs, aloyalty to that party is formed. It's theonly logical choice. Why would a voterselect someone that they knew wouldnot look out for their best interest torepresent them in government? Theywouldn't!Year after year we peacefully allownew leaders to take office. We give themthe opportunity to try their hand at run-ning the show, It is amazing to me howeasily the power of our country changeshands. With the simple swearing of anoath, one man accept the most powerfuloffice in the world while another gra-ciously steps aside.It takes a mere thirty seconds for thetransfer of power to occur. Isn'tAmerica great? Where else in the worldcan you find a peaceful changing of theguard?Despite the fact that PresidentClinton's morality can be compared tothat of the fleas that carried the BubonicPlague, his term in office producedrespectable results. I wish him luck as aprivate citizen and would like to saygoodbye and thank you.I wish our new president all of theconfidence and competence he willneed during his term of service. For thesake of the nation, I hope he does a stel-lar job. Afterall, the entire country isdepending on him.We're always looking for some new talent.If you have an opinion, bring it home, jtac@tarieton.edu